Connie Francis to appear at Majestic in Boston

Friday

Sep 28, 2007 at 12:01 AMSep 28, 2007 at 3:37 AM

Francis, 68, exploded on the music scene at age 19 with her first hit - “Who’s Sorry Now,” then went on to become the most popular songstress of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. She was the Mariah Carey of her day.

Dana Barbuto

They don’t make pop stars like Connie Francis anymore.

Francis, 68, exploded on the music scene at age 19 with her first hit - “Who’s Sorry Now,” then went on to become the most popular songstress of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. She was the Mariah Carey of her day. By the mid-1960s, she had sold more than 35 million records worldwide, with 35 U.S. top 40 hits and three No. 1 hits.

Francis’ voice was powerful and evocative. So emotionally moving that she once brought the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley, to tears.

“He had just lost his mother and I was appearing in Las Vegas and he came in with a whole group of people in the front seat and I started to sing ‘Mama’ and he started to cry and he got up and left and the next day he sent me two dozen yellow roses and an apology. He had been so affected by that song. That song moved a lot of people.”

Francis, 68, whose career has taken her around the world, makes a stop in Boston Saturday at the Cutler Majestic Theater.

From Italian to French to Japanese, Francis sings in nine languages and has recorded more than 3,000 songs. Some her most popular are “Stupid Cupid,” “Where the Boys Are” and “Everybody is Somebody’s Fool.”

To re-create the magical musical era in which she thrived, her live show features video and film footage of that time and clips from “American Bandstand.”

Francis was on the “Ed Sullivan Show” 42 times and “I can’t even count,” how many times she appeared on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand.” She went on every time a new record came out, “and then when it was a hit, I did the show again,” Francis said.

She called “Bandstand” a “great thing,” saying nothing today, like “American Idol,” can compare.

“Even though there are great showcases for talent but nothing where the kids were the stars. The average teenagers that went to high school every day were the stars of the show and they set the fads in everything - in fashion, in trends, in dances, in crazes, in whatever. They were stars unto themselves, and a lot of the kids had their own fan clubs. So it was a whole different era that will never be duplicated, I don’t think.”

Francis performed with so many musical giants - Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Andy Williams. And her favorite?

Bobby Darin, her former boyfriend in 1959.

“I just saw a DVD of Bobby Darin, and he was the quintessential performer of all time and the love of my life, incidentally, and he did it without props, lasers and all the pyrotechnics they use today.”

Now in her fifth decade of performing, Francis said a lot is different.

“When I first started out it used to be, ‘Could I have your autograph Ms. Francis for my kid sister.’ Then it was ‘May I have your autograph for me, please.’ Then it was ‘May I have your autograph for my mother, please.’ Now it’s ‘May I have your autograph for my grandmother, please,’” Francis said with a laugh.

After the Boston show, Francis’ schedule takes her to San Francisco for one performance. There, she said she’ll meet up with Dick Clark.

“He’s my closest friend in this business, and has always been,” Francis said of Clark, who suffered a stroke in 2004. “He’s not doing particularly great. But he’s such a champion, a dynamic person that he doesn’t give up. It’s a long overdue trip.”

Dana Barbuto of The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.) can be reached at dbarbuto@ledger.com.